Urgent Important Matrix
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©PSA Training and Development Ltd. 2002 The Time Quadrant Matrix Not every task we are asked to undertake will have the same level of urgency or importance as the others. It is possible to represent this graphically as the chart below shows. Category 2 Category 1 Category 3 Urgent Non-urgent Unimportant Important Category 4 Quadrant I Represents things that are both "urgent" and "important." Here's where we handle an irate client, meet a deadline, repair a broken-down machine, undergo heart surgery, or help a crying child who has been hurt. We need to spend time in Quadrant I. This is where we manage, where we produce, where we bring our experience and judgment to bear in responding to many needs and challenges. If we ignore it, we become buried alive. But we also need to realise that many important activities become urgent through procrastination, or because we don't do enough prevention and planning. Quadrant II Includes activities that are "important, but not urgent." This is the quadrant of quality. Here's where we do our long-range planning, anticipate and prevent problems, empower others, broaden our minds and increase our skills through reading and continuous professional development, envision how we're going to help a struggling son or daughter, prepare for important meetings and presentations, or invest in relationships through deep, honest listening. Increasing time spent in this quadrant increases our ability to do. Ignoring this quadrant feeds and enlarges Quadrant I, creating stress, burnout, and deeper crises for the person consumed by it. On the other hand, investing in this quadrant shrinks Quadrant I. Planning,
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Transcript of Urgent Important Matrix
©PSA Training and Development Ltd. 2002
The Time Quadrant Matrix
Not every task we are asked to undertake will have the same level of urgency orimportance as the others. It is possible to represent this graphically as the chartbelow shows.
Category 4
Category 2 Category 1
Category 3
UrgentNon-urgent
Unimportant
Important
Category 4
Quadrant I
Represents things that are both "urgent" and "important." Here's where we handlean irate client, meet a deadline, repair a broken-down machine, undergo heartsurgery, or help a crying child who has been hurt. We need to spend time inQuadrant I. This is where we manage, where we produce, where we bring ourexperience and judgment to bear in responding to many needs and challenges. Ifwe ignore it, we become buried alive. But we also need to realise that manyimportant activities become urgent through procrastination, or because we don't doenough prevention and planning.
Quadrant II
Includes activities that are "important, but not urgent." This is the quadrant ofquality. Here's where we do our long-range planning, anticipate and preventproblems, empower others, broaden our minds and increase our skills throughreading and continuous professional development, envision how we're going to helpa struggling son or daughter, prepare for important meetings and presentations, orinvest in relationships through deep, honest listening. Increasing time spent in thisquadrant increases our ability to do. Ignoring this quadrant feeds and enlargesQuadrant I, creating stress, burnout, and deeper crises for the person consumed byit. On the other hand, investing in this quadrant shrinks Quadrant I. Planning,
©PSA Training and Development Ltd. 2002
preparation, and prevention keep many things from becoming urgent. Quadrant IIdoes not act on us; we must act on it. This is the quadrant of personal leadership.
Quadrant III
This is almost the phantom of Quadrant I. It includes things that are "urgent, butnot important." This is the quadrant of deception. The noise of urgency creates theillusion of importance. But the actual activities, if they're important at all, are onlyimportant to someone else. Many phone calls, meetings, and drop-in visitors fall intothis category. We spend a lot of time in Quadrant III meeting other people'spriorities and expectations, thinking we're really in Quadrant I.
Quadrant IV
This is reserved for those activities that are "not urgent and not important." This isthe quadrant of waste. Of course, we really shouldn't be there at all. But we get sobattle-scarred from being tossed around in Quadrants I and III that we often"escape" to Quadrant IV for survival. What kinds of things are in Quadrant IV? Notnecessarily recreational things, because recreation in the true sense of re-creation isa valuable Quadrant II activity. But reading addictive light novels, habituallywatching "mindless" television shows, or gossiping around the water fountain at theoffice would qualify as Quadrant IV time wasters. Quadrant IV is not survival; it'sdeterioration. It may have an initial cotton candy feel, but we quickly find there'snothing there.
Stephen Covey “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”
Review your last few days and the activities with which you have been involved.
“Are you being ruled by the urgent or are you able to give the trulyimportant issues sufficient time”?
